Miami Dolphins: Little Risk In Acquiring Chambers. But How Much Reward?

November 3, 2009|Posted by Ethan J. Skolnick on November 3, 2009 10:29 AM

This will surprise some in the media down here, those who used to call me "Chambers' biographer" because of my tendency to write about the receiver the Dolphins drafted in the second round in 2001:

This Chris Chambers story isn't doing a lot for me, at least not in terms of its potential impact on this team.

Chambers is on waivers until 4 p.m. Then he would become a free agent, with the team that signs him no longer responsible for his current contract.

Some (like my colleague Dave Hyde) don't think the Dolphins should waste their time or money on him.

Others (like my colleague Omar Kelly) look at the state of the Dolphins' receiving corps, and argue that this team needs to be aggressive if it has any hope to make the playoffs.

Where do I fall?

In the middle.

The money isn't my concern. The Dolphins are under the cap. Chambers is a free agent after the year. He would be a rental. And it's their money, not mine.

And I'm not really worried about how it might cut into the young players' playing time. Patrick Turner isn't getting on the field anyway. There will still be a role for Brian Hartline regardless.

I just wonder how much Chambers can help.

He knows the area and the facility and some of the Dolphins (even as the team has turned over since 2007), so he'll be comfortable in that sense. But he'll have to learn another new system, which is roughly the 321st of his career. He'll have to get on the same page with another quarterback.

Then there's the question of whether his skills have slipped. That's hard to say, though Norv Turner knows him very well, well enough to have traded a 2nd round pick to get him two years ago, and decided (in the heat of a playoff chase) that the Chargers could live without him. When the Dolphins played the Chargers earlier this year, Chambers was essentially the 6th target, behind three other receivers, Antonio Gates and Darren Sproles. The Chargers seemed to be using him on fades and little else.

He's had some personal issues over the past year, which you are free to find on Google. And it's certainly possible that they affected his play. Or that diminished production could just be a product of reaching the other side of 30.

When the Dolphins brought in Jason Taylor this offseason, I predicted on this blog that he would finish with 10 to 12 sacks. He's right on pace. My feeling was that Taylor's 2008 trouble was a result of injuries and improper use. I thought he'd respond well to the change of scenery, with something to prove.